For a self-published author, marketing the book can be more important than writing it. With a few key steps, an author can build a loyal following, get the word out about his or her work, and get people to buy it.

“There is a time for multi-tasking and a time for losing yourself. The short story offers something else: a chance to pay close attention—and have that attention rewarded because, for once, every little plot twist, every sentence, counts.”

I was teaching a ninth-grade humanities class in a New York City public school last year when I was accepted into two M.F.A. programs for fiction writing. I was over the moon: they were each funded with a stipend, and one was a school I never wouldâ&#128;&#153;ve thought Iâ&#128;&#153;d have a shot at getting into. Against all odds, my dream had come true.

THE DELICATE DEPENDENCY (1982) has long been regarded as one of the best vampire novels ever written, but until now readers have been forced to pay huge sums for dilapidated old paperback copies. It was the first, and best, novel by Michael Talbot (1953-1994), a brilliant gay author more famous for a nonfiction book, The Holographic Universe, which examines the idea that the entire universe is a holographic projection. How good is it? It has 21 five-star reviews on Amazon and a whopping 4.34 average on Goodreads! Features a new foreword by Jillian Venters, author of Gothic Charm School: An Essential Guide for Goths and Those Who Love Them

Included in Fangoria’s Top 10 Books That Suck list. The best vampire novels ever written.

“The past half-decade has seen a glut of vampire novels, but few as ambitious and seriously intended as this one … an impressive book, unflaggingly interesting.” – Publishers Weekly

“The tension builds page by page to a stunning climax … I doubt that I will ever forget it.” – Whitley Strieber, author of The Hunger and The Wolfen

“[O]ne of the most impressive explorations of a vampire mind ever written … a novel of considerable suspense … compelling and deeply original.” – Darrell Schweitzer, Encyclopedia of the Vampire

So amiekaufman and I have been sitting on some pretty exciting news for the past few weeks, and today we finally get to share it with all of you! The announcement went live today for our new series together, starting with Unearthed, to publish in Fall 2017.

The quick and dirty down-low? The book is Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft… in space.

Q: I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you? Her outlook is almost unbearably grim.

A: For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus? Oscar Wao? Antigone? Raskolnikov? Any of the characters in The Corrections? Any of the characters in Infinite Jest? Any of the characters in anything Pynchon has ever written? Or Martin Amis? Or Orhan Pamuk? Or Alice Munro, for that matter? If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble. We read to find life, in all its possibilities. The relevant question isn’t “is this a potential friend for me?” but “is this character alive?”

(Claire Messud gave Publishers Weekly the answer it deserved last week. She’s on the show tomorrow. Tune in to see what answers she gives Terry!)

Little, Brown channels Dr. Frankenstein with The Monster’s Monster by Patrick McDonnell, in which three little monsters build their own big, bad monster; All the Awake Animals (Are Almost Asleep)by Crescent Dragonwagon, illus. by David McPhail, an alliterative bedtime story; The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer, a first novel from the Glee star about twins who enter the world of fairy tales and have trouble getting out;Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket, the first in the “autobiographical” All the Wrong Questions series; and The Divinersby Libba Bray, which kicks off a glitzy murder/mystery/occult series set in New York City during the Roaring ’20s.

“Adult author and comedian Benincasa (Agorafabulous!) gives The Great Gatsby a biting, genderbent twist in her first book for teens…any readers who have completed ninth-grade English (or caught the recent Baz Luhrmann film) will have as much fun picking out the parallels and allusions as Benincasa clearly did creating them.”

“For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus? Oscar Wao? Antigone? Raskolnikov? Any of the characters in The Corrections?” Claire Messud bristles at the notion that characters should be likable.

What you need to know: It is called I WAS HERE. Here’s the little blurb we came up with to describe it. It took as long to write this as entire chapters of the book.

This gritty, powerful new YA novel follows Cody Reynolds in the months following her best friend Meg’s shocking suicide. Delving into Meg’s secret life as she searches for answers, Cody discovers both her strengths and her vulnerabilities, testing her ability to love, to protect, and to forgive.

The storytelling in “Anime” is a fair bit more complex, and the artwork is more refined, though only slightly. The character study of a Japanophile uncomfortable in her own skin and native country relies more heavily on dialogue to draw a full and sympathetic portrait of its protagonist, but Alden still knows when to let the silence take over. The result is two thematically divergent, but devastatingly human portraits from an emerging cartoonist displaying the sort of storytelling and artistic restraint that often only comes after years of toiling away at the drawing board. Alden is a talent to watch.

It has been a tremendous week for Jesse Jacobs; his new book Safari Honeymoon has been reviewed by The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and mental_floss.

The Globe and Mail“That the London, Ontario cartoonist cut his teeth working on TV’s Adventure Time makes sense, given the almost stop-motion quality of his critters throughout. But the artist’s concern with the squishy, tactile processes of mutation, infection, and evolution goes beyond what animation captures of life, and gestures instead toward the natural world in all its bewildering complexity.” — Sean Rogers, The Globe and Mail

“The central motif here is parasitic transformation — one species crawling into another and overtaking its body — and, by its end, the book has shifted from an eccentric satire to a vision of union with monstrous nature.” — Douglas Wolk, The New York Times

“Jesse Jacobs’ last graphic novel—By This You Shall Know Him—is probably one of my top 5 favorite comics of the past half decade, making his latest—Safari Honeymoon—one of the books I’ve been most anticipating this year. His comics are weird, smart, beautifully designed and always surprising.” — Rich Barrett, mental_floss